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Originally posted by Bytemite:

Niki, I've gotten into this argument with Sig as well, and frankly, I don't think you can blame voters for politicians being ambitious and powerhungry in the first place, for becoming inevitably corrupted by the power their position grants them, for the way the game changes them because that's the only way to play, or people for expecting their leaders to act with a little bit of decency.

So no, I don't put it on the voters. I don't buy the arguments of the power-elite that we're all dumb animals and it's our own fault for putting them in charge. I don't believe that if the voters were to just vote for the right person, EVERYTHING could be fixed and "America could be put back on course"/"We could create a modern day utopia"/ etc.

I even think that ends up perpetuating the problem, some kind of bizarre blame the victim mentality that all the politicians are laughing up their sleeves at us falling for, because if we continue to believe it's our fault, if we continue to not hold them accountable, nothing ever has to change. And that feeds in directly to the question of "what's the right choice," and what they want us to conclude is "well, it's certain political party, and everything that goes wrong is the fault of other political party." Even though they end up 'compromising' on everything and those compromises are generally good for them and their corporate buddies and bad for everyone else.

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Originally posted by THG:

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Originally posted by Bytemite:

Niki, I've gotten into this argument with Sig as well, and frankly, I don't think you can blame voters for politicians being ambitious and powerhungry in the first place, for becoming inevitably corrupted by the power their position grants them, for the way the game changes them because that's the only way to play, or people for expecting their leaders to act with a little bit of decency.

So no, I don't put it on the voters. I don't buy the arguments of the power-elite that we're all dumb animals and it's our own fault for putting them in charge. I don't believe that if the voters were to just vote for the right person, EVERYTHING could be fixed and "America could be put back on course"/"We could create a modern day utopia"/ etc.

I even think that ends up perpetuating the problem, some kind of bizarre blame the victim mentality that all the politicians are laughing up their sleeves at us falling for, because if we continue to believe it's our fault, if we continue to not hold them accountable, nothing ever has to change. And that feeds in directly to the question of "what's the right choice," and what they want us to conclude is "well, it's certain political party, and everything that goes wrong is the fault of other political party." Even though they end up 'compromising' on everything and those compromises are generally good for them and their corporate buddies and bad for everyone else.

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Come back!

T